Gazpacho & Gripes

I know, I know. It’s autumn, and I should have moved on to everything pumpkin and squash, but I am loving heirloom tomatoes as long as I can get them! This week I bought quite the local summer veggie haul, and with the weather being in the 80’s, I couldn’t really help but take advantage of it. I am up and running again, building my base for the 2011 Boston Marathon, and I simply needed to make one of my favorite warm-weather dishes, gazpacho.

I started with 3 large heirloom tomatoes, 3 cloves of garlic, a small yellow onion, a yellow pepper, and a cucumber.

I couldn’t find any ripe peaches, so I cheated and used 2 peaches from a jar of Trader Joe’s peach halves, quite delicious, especially chopped up in oatmeal.

To make the gazpacho, I chopped all of the above ingredients and tossed them in the food processer with 6 ice cubes, a cup of cold water, 1/4 cup red wine vinegar, and a few dashes of hot sauce.

The combination of peaches with the other ingredients is delicious and one I first had at Union a few weeks ago. I am ready for fall, but I will savor as long as I possibly can!

Now for the gripes! One of my favorite blogs is Melissa Nibbles, and I love her “Three Things Thursday” where she has a little venting session on things that are annoying her. While I tend to be a happy and positive person overall, there are certain things that just KILL me, and so I decided to take a page from Melissa’s book (er. . . blog) and let it all out there. If you haven’t read her blog, definitely do, she is hilarious and delightfully real.

1) People who get on an escalator, stand in the middle, and hold on to both sides. . . then stay there. Why do we even have escalators? I am pretty sure most healthy Americans could stand to walk up or down a flight of stairs once in awhile. I find myself out and about during lunch, in a huge rush, and constantly stuck behind people who don’t get the “stand on the right, walk on the left” system that is a given in Europe. Haven’t we gotten the escalator memo?

2) Littering/not picking up after your dog – I see a LOT of this in my neighborhood and once had a neighbor who shared our backyard and didn’t pick up after her dog. This behavior makes you a gross human being. Period.

3) Adults who ride bikes on the sidewalk – bikes are vehicles, and if you are over the age of 16, you should be in the road, following the rules of the road, not riding up the back of my ankle on Comm Ave.

I am TOTALLY with you about all three of your gripes. The bike on the sidewalk thing gets me along with my other pedestrian ramps – if I’m in the crosswalk, please don’t try to go around me in front of with your car…wait till I’m out of the crosswalk! And I get really annoyed by couples who need to hold hands on narrow crosswalks. There is enough room for one person to go in either direction. I’m tempted to play Red Rover!

My gripe (I drive to work) are people who wait to merge on the highway until the very last minute, therefore slowing traffic down in all lanes. I usually hit traffic caused by this on 93 both to and from work every morning.

And I’ll have you know, I always pick up after my pup because nobody (including myself) likes to smell or step in doggie business!

I have those exact same gripes! I actually take the stairs most of the time, and I get annoyed with the people who don’t walk up the stairs quickly when there’s an escalator right there for them to stand on and be lazy. Get out of my way! Grr. Ok, that’s out.

My other thing that is annoying me at the moment is that I keep finding typos and mistakes in books from publishing companies that I have applied to for freelance editing work. It drives me absolutely crazy that they won’t give me the opportunity to edit their stuff, and yet they spell famous people’s names wrong!

I either walk or bike (on the street!) to work, so I don’t have many gripes about commuting … but my recent pet peeve is people who talk on their cell phones at the gym (even when there are signs that say you aren’t supposed to). Also, I can’t stand really loud people in general. Why do so many people yell to be heard?! Shh!!

Yes! THIS! And why do they have to yell on the sports channels on tv? My boyfriend watches NESN and ESPN and I understand that the anchors are passionate, but they don’t need to yell when they’re just telling us the baseball score.

I love Melissa’s blog!!! This is great! I agree with all of those!! I’ve written this on Melissa’s blog before but my biggest grip is when people ask to stand 5-10 minutes on the Commuter Rail before we stop. Often they are standing RIGHT next to the seat. And then when it stops- they go flying. I just don’t get it.
Oh and Emily, I agree with you… loud people are the WORST!

My gripes–people who put their feet on the train seats/stretch out and lay on the seats and sleep, people who cannot comprehend the notion of moving to the back of the bus to let more people on it, and jerks who cut out in front of you (and almost hit your car!) from a parking lot while you’re waiting on a light and can’t even be bothered to wave a thank you.

Totally agree about not picking up after your dog. The worst is that I have a dog that I diligently pick up after, by my neighbor doesn’t pick up after his dog, so then I have to pick up his dog’s jurassic-sized poops so that our other neighbors don’t think it’s my dog! Sigh.

My other gripe is weather-related: when it starts to rain, everyone driving slows down to 10-15 miles under the speed limit. I’m all for safety first, but c’mon people, sometimes it’s.just.ridiculous.

That is really annoying! I find that New Englanders in general are simply crazy about the weather, like they are surprised and shocked when it snows or rains or gets really hot. And it’s like people forget every year where they live and yes, it will snow in winter.

I am in the same boat; I’m not ready to trade up my tomatoes fro squash. And I agree w/ MelissaNibbles re: the screaming newscasters on ESPN. Seriously, I wake up in the morning and my bf has the TV blasting. Worst way to start a day!!!!

You did a three things thursday!!! Whenever I meander into work and look at my blog roll, I see MN’s post and I get excted that a) it is thursday and b) I get to read her rant. (Sometimes i forget what day it is, you know?!)

I totally get annoyed at the escalator thing! Hey, sometimes I like to ride them, (like if I have luggage or i’m in no rush) so i stand to the side. Othertimes I walk up them (like at sullivan square on one side there are no stairs). It is blatantly obvious the right is for standers, the left is for walkers. get with it people!!

Haha great post- I always wondered about the escalator thing and why we have not figured out the European system, its not that complicated people!

It’s funny- I love when I see bikers on the sidewalk. I know they shouldn’t be there, but since I’m more often driving rather than using the sidewalk, I’m happy when bikers aren’t in my way on the road. I know terrible. I need to share the road!

I’ve had this gripe all week: people, the media, Oprah being down on teachers. Not all teachers are perfect, but so many teachers work really hard. Very few people want to try harder, when they are being told they’re no good. That’s my gripe!

I didn’t hear about this (maybe because honestly, I think Oprah is obnoxious), but that’s interesting because at dinner tonight my husband and I were talking about how parenting in America is lacking and how sad it is that teachers are expected to educate, raise, protect, provide etiquette, sometimes meals, etc. My sister is an amazing teacher, and I know there are lots more like her and you!

Hi! I just linked here from MelissaNibbles and have been checking out some of your past posts. Your blog seems fabulous! I love your variety of posts about cooking and food, as well as various adventures. I don’t live in New England (Chicago, actually), but I’m looking forward to following you!

haha. i HATE people who walk on the left side of the sidewalk or enter in the left side of the door. We drive on the RIGHT side!! I totally took the escalator today (I had ridden 30miles and walked all over the city… just completely spent), but at least i didn’t hold both sides of the escalator!